For many years there has been a developing interest in swimming appliances and propulsion aids for swimmers including experienced swimmers who, more and more, engage in scuba diving. Particular attention has been given by swimmers to the design and development of foot wear for use in swimming. One approach to increasing the forward push or thrusting action obtainable from a swimmer's legs and feet has been the provision of swimming shoes. Swimming shoes of one general type have lateral wings that swing outwardly into the plane of the shoe's sole during alternating push or thrust strokes of the swimmers' legs and that swing toward each other and reside rearwardly of the boarders of the shoe sole during a forward or retracting portion of the swimmer's leg stroke so that little or no resisting surfaces of the wings are presented to the water during this movement of the swimmer's leg strokes. Examples of this form of swimming foot gear are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,043,770 granted to G. M. Larson, U.S. Pat. No. 1,506,885 granted to A. Cech and U.S. Pat. No. 1,626,541 granted to J. P. LaRosa.
Another approach to the provision of swimming shoe designs have been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,626,175 granted to Zimmer and U.S. Pat. No. 1,983,609 granted to W. T. Hudson. In these patents lateral thrust wings are affixed in hinged manner to the shoe sole along the central longitudinal axis of the sole or to a central plate or platform along the central longitudinal axis thereof with the swimmer's foot strapped to such plate or platform. Again, these swimming aids are utilized where the swimmer utilizes a push or thrust type stroke of the legs followed by forward or retracting movement of the legs and such swimming aids are heavy, cumbersome and unwieldy and frequently come into interfering contact with one-another during the pushing portion of the leg strokes.
A still further design for foot gear for use in swimming has been proposed by P. J. Griffin in his U.S. Pat. No. 719,583 wherein lateral water thrust wings are hinged to a beam which is attached to and projects from an anklet ring worn on the swimmer's leg above each ankle. The beam on each of the swimmer's legs extends forwardly from the shin area above the ankle with the lateral wings moving outwardly above the forward portion and toes of each foot during leg thrust motion and inwardly and downwardly to the foot during the retracting portion of each leg stroke. The Griffin swimming gear requires that a strut extend from a metallic portion of a foot socket to the beam supporting the thrust wings to maintain such beam in its forwardly extending orientation from the swimmer's leg. As in the case of the previously described patented swimming aids, the Griffin gear is heavy, cumbersome and unwieldy with the inside thrust wings of each foot-borne structure often interfering with each other.
The inventor of the present invention has disclosed and claimed in his U.S. Pat. No. 4,884,986, granted Dec. 5, 1989, swimmer's propulsion aids which comprise substantial improvements over the aforementioned prior patents relating to swimmer's foot gear utilizing the action of lateral propulsion wings. The swimmer's propulsion aids of such patent include thrust wings and foot attachment means of light-weight construction and adaptability for rapid attachment of the propulsion aids to the swimmers foot.
Still further designs for swimmer's foot gear have been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,607,857 granted to F. Zukal and U.S. Pat. No. 2,672,629 granted to J. K. Latrell and comprise foot "flipper-type" swimmer's propulsion aids where the effective areas of the soles of the swimmer's feet are increased. With such gear, increased swimming propulsion force is derived during relatively normal flutter kicking action of the swimmer's legs and feet in an extended orientation without a reciprocating action of the legs. Collapsible forms of swim fin types of swimming propulsion aids have been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,250,584 granted to G. Korn and in French Pat. No. 2,675,927 granted to T. Rolland. U.S. Pat. No. 4,952,183 granted to the inventor of the present invention disclosed and claimed a significant improvement of flipper-type swimmer's propulsion aids over the Korn and Rolland patents.
It is an object of the present invention to provide flipper-type swimming propulsion aids for attachment to each foot of a swimmer with the aids being of light-weight construction, collapsible for convenient and compact storage, and having significant improved propulsion utility over the flipper-type aids of U.S. Pat. No. 4,952,183 by providing flutter flexibility in the extended effective fin area of the aids beyond the foot soles of the swimmer wearing the aids.
It is another object of the invention to provide light-weight flipper-type swimming aids designed for rapid and easy attachment to the feet of a swimmer and capable of assisting in propelling the swimmer through the water with a minimum of leg flutter-kick action.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following summary and detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing figures.